Strange but true: Kagan friends ‘out’ her as a straight

This is one of the most bizarre political stories of the week. But it tells you a lot about Internet-driven nature of the news business these days. Unsubstantiated gossip gets spread around cyberspace at warp speed and rumor becomes reality, at least in the minds of true believers.

In this case, some far-right social conservatives and far-left gay and lesbian activists had created an alternate reality declaring that Elena Kagan, the new Supreme Court nominee, is gay. A CBS News blog even stated (until it was taken down under White House pressure) that she was “openly” gay.

Now the White House has been forced to respond by “authorizing” stories like this from Politico:

Elena Kagan is not a lesbian, one of her best friends told POLITICO Tuesday night, responding to persistent rumors and innuendo about the Supreme Court nominee’s personal life.

“I’ve known her for most of her adult life and I know she’s straight,” said Sarah Walzer, Kagan’s roommate in law school and a close friend since then. “She dated men when we were in law school, we talked about men &#151 who in our class was cute, who she would like to date, all of those things. She definitely dated when she was in D.C. after law school, when she was in Chicago &#151 and she just didn’t find the right person.”

…

Another friend, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a member of Kagan’s social circle at Princeton University, wanted to make the same point as Walzer. “I did not go out with her, but other guys did,” he said in an email Tuesday night. “I don’t think it is my place to say more.”

The rumor about Kagan has circulated for months on gay blogs and became a matter of controversy when it was cited as fact by a conservative blogger on the website of CBS News, drawing a sharp White House rebuttal. It has, since, been a source of particular fascination in some socially conservative circles and particularly among gay and lesbian political observers, some of whom objected volubly Tuesday to a Wall Street Journal cover image of Kagan playing softball, which they perceived as a jab at a stereotype of lesbians.